There are many different concrete pumping systems. The most common type is a two cylinder type Piston Pump. Amongst other components, they all have pump cylinders stationed and fastened to the outside back flat wall of the hoper, somewhat above the hoper's floor and aligned inside the hoper thru the same size opening on the hoper forming an alignment inside the hoper with the wear plate, wear ring and swing tube which is situated inside the hoper, thru which concrete is pumped into the pump's outlet, situated on front of pump's hoper. One issue known in the art of concrete pumps is that the equipment has to be cleaned quickly as concrete can set and harden in a short period of time. Further, with more and more cars on the roads and obstacles encountered during concrete deliveries, these deliveries are often delayed and this limits the time a user has to work with the concrete before it starts to set. The following invention is directed toward an improved pumping system to overcome some short falls of existing concrete pumping systems. Existing Pumps cannot pump out the entire contents of concrete delivered into the hoper. This means that every time upon completion of pumping there is a volume of concrete left in the hoper and in the cylinders, usually two wheel barrows and in some cases more. This concrete then has to be removed manually and carted away in buckets or in a wheel barrow, and disposed of as waste. This cleaning process usually takes anything between 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on how much concrete is built-up in the hoper, cylinders and pipe line, and what type (strait pumping or shotcreting) and strength of concrete was pumped and also what the air temperature was during job.
Existing hopers are uneven in shape and have a swing tub in their lower section. Because of this, it is not possible to mix an entire volume of concrete either with a motorized Auger or tools like shovel which is desperately necessary during times when waiting for a concrete delivery truck. Particularly, when the next delivery has been delayed on a hot day it is necessary to add water to the concrete in the hoper and mix it up to stop it from setting hard in the hopper and pumping device. If concrete were to set in the device, a user would be unable to resume pumping upon delivery of the next load and the entire pipe line could be lost, thus preventing the pump from operating and preventing the job from being completed.
In existing concrete pumps, inspection, maintenance or replacement of most wearing parts like, wear plate, wear ring and piston caps, piston's oil seals, swing tub, swing tub's bearing and seal are not easily accomplished because these parts are not easy accessible. Normally this would take anything up to 6 hours, due to fact that very often it is necessary to remove other parts to gain access to the part that you have to inspect or replace.
In many instances it is important for the pump operator to know what slump of concrete is being delivered into the hoper, especially for specialized pumping like shotcreting. At present time no concrete pump known is fitted with such measuring devices, and there is not such a device available for retrofitting.
The problems above are overcome by the present invention.